HOPE! - Those Other Samaritans

John chapter 4 isn’t the only time that Jesus went to Samaria and interacted with the Samaritan people. On a later occasion, in Luke’s Gospel, Jesus sends his disciples on ahead of Him to prepare the way.

However, when they come to a Samaritan town, and the Samaritans find out that Jesus is on His way to take care of business in Jerusalem, the Samaritans say that He and His disciples are not welcome.

Luke doesn’t give us the name of the town, but presumably it’s a different town than the town of Sychar where John reports that Jesus was welcomed warmly.

When the disciples report this news that they’re not welcome to Jesus, James and John (the sons of Zebedee) ask Jesus if He would like them to call down fire from Heaven upon these Samaritans.

The disciples would have known the story of Elijah calling down fire from Heaven to consume the commander and soldiers when they came from Samaria to arrest him.

James and John believed that if Elijah would call down fire to destroy unbelieving Samarians, then Jesus would certainly do no less.

However, Jesus rebuked the two disciples for saying such a thing.

Jesus did not come to destroy life, but to save it.

Jesus had compassion on the Samaritans, and Jesus came not just for the Jews, but for the Gentiles as well.

So Jesus says: Salvation is for all people! Go love the person who despises you! Go love the person you hate!